Europe: Allah Takes over Churches, Synagogues

In the Dutch province of Friesland, 250 of 720 existing churches have been transformed or closed. The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint Ignatius Church. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the Al Aqsa Mosque. In Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel now stands. Catholic arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.

"The French will not wake up until Notre Dame becomes a mosque." — Emile Cioran, author.

Germany is literally selling its churches. Between 1990 and 2010, the German Evangelical Church closed 340 churches. Recently in Hamburg, a Lutheran church was purchased by the Muslim community.

"History teaches us that these transformations are rarely innocent." — Bertrand Dutheil de La Rochère, assistant to Marine Le Pen.

Last year, at the famous Biennale artistic festival in Venice, Swiss artist Christian Büchel took the ancient Catholic Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia and converted it into a mosque. The church had not been used for Christian worship for more than forty years. Büchel decorated the baroque walls with Arabic writing, covered the floor with a prayer rug, and hid the crucifix behind a prayer niche indicating the direction of Mecca, the holy city of Islam. It was a provocation.

But everywhere else in Europe, the practice of Islam really is outstripping Christianity, while Jews are leaving -- not only France but the old continent -- en masse.

In January, Zvi Ammar, the president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, recommended that Jews that stop wearing a kippah (skullcap) when out in the street. Too many anti-Semitic incidents have cast fear into the hearts of Marseille's 70,000 Jews, who make up a tenth of the city's population. 500 Jews already left the city in 2015. A few days ago, Mr. Ammar announced another attempt at appeasement: the conversion of a historic synagogue into a mosque.

The synagogue Or Torah ["light of the Torah"] was bought by the Muslim organization Al Badr for 400,000 euros ($456,000). The synagogue was empty, due to rampant anti-Semitism in Marseille, while the nearby mosque, run by Al Badr, was unable to handle the overcrowding every Friday, with the faithful forced to pray in the street (a quarter of the inhabitants of Marseille are Muslim). Muslims in Marseille already have 73 mosques.

A year ago, the Muslim French leader Dalil Boubakeur suggested turning empty churches into mosques. It is the first time in France that something similar happened to a synagogue. "History teaches us that these transformations are rarely innocent," said Bertrand Dutheil de La Rochère, an assistant to Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front party. He appeared to be comparing the fate of the synagogue to that of the Hagia Sophia Basilica, which became a mosque in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, after its capture by the Muslim Ottoman Turks.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the grandest cathedral in the Christian world, until it was captured and converted to a mosque by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Middle East is full of churches and synagogues turned into Islamic sites. Today, every traveler in a modern European city can notice the new mosques being built alongside abandoned and secularized churches, some converted into museums. (Image source: Antoine Taveneaux/Wikimedia Commons)

"What should we do?" Zvi Ammar asked this author.

"Security concerns had already pushed the Jews out of the city's center. We could no longer live in a Muslim area, so the synagogue was empty. Thousands of synagogues in the Arab-Islamic world, from Libya to Morocco, from Iraq to Tunisia, have been converted into mosques. The only difference is that in France, Muslims cannot expropriate a synagogue; they have to pay for it."

What a sad consolation.

Zvi Ammar, however, is right: not only is the Middle East full of synagogues turned into Islamic sites, but also of churches converted into mosques, such as the Umayyad in Damascus, the Ibn Tulun in Cairo and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. In Hebron and on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Muslim conquerors built their sites atop the Jewish ones.

A few years ago, Niall Ferguson, the brilliant contemporary historian, wrote about Europe's future as "the creeping Islamicization of a decadent Christendom." It is easy to find images of the decay of Europe's Christianity and the growth of Islam in the heart of the old continent. Every traveler in any modern European city can notice the new mosques being built alongside abandoned and secularized churches, some converted into museums.

The most crucial moment in Michel Houellebecq's novel, Submission, is when the novel's protagonist, a Sorbonne professor searching for a conversion experience, visits a Christian shrine, only to find himself unmoved. This is a reality in France.

In the French region of Vierzon, the Church of Saint-Eloi has become a mosque. The diocese of Bourges had put the church on sale, and a Muslim organization made a most generous offer to buy the site. In the Quai Malakoff, in Nantes, the old Church of Saint Christopher became the Mosque of Forqane.

In the Dutch province of Friesland, 250 of 720 existing churches have been transformed or closed. The Fatih Camii Mosque in Amsterdam once was the Saint Ignatius Church. A synagogue in The Hague was turned into the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Church of St. Jacobus, one of the oldest of the city of Utrecht, was recently converted into a luxury residence. A library just opened in a former Dominican church in Maastricht.

Belgium, once a cradle of European Catholicism, is closing dozens of its churches. The Church of St. Catherine, built in 1874, dominates the historic center of Brussels, the only religious building created in the city's "pentagon" at the end of Ancien Régime, and today one of the most protected in the EU's capital, especially after the terror attacks there on March 22, 2016. Brussels, however, wanted to convert the church into a fruit market. Only the mobilization of the faithful hindered the city's plan.

Last month, The Economist explained what is happening in Belgium, once famous for the Madonna of Bruges, one of Michelangelo's most famous paintings: "If anything holds Belgium together through its third century of existence, Catholicism will not be the glue," the magazine wrote. That, it noted, will be Islam. In Brussels, half the children in state schools choose classes in Islam; practicing Catholics amount to 12%, while 19% are practicing Muslims.

According to La Libre newspaper, dozens of Belgian churches are in imminent danger of conversion to other uses. The Church of Saint-Hubert in Watermael-Boitsfort is expected to accommodate apartments, while the Church of the Holy Family of Schaerbeek awaits an investor. In Malonne, the chapel of Piroy has been transformed into a restaurant. In Namur, the Saint-Jacques Church was transformed into a clothing store and the Church of Notre Dame, built in 1749 and deconsecrated in 2004, is now a "cultural space." The square will be redeveloped, with ticketing services and catering. Dozens of exhibitions, concerts and fashion shows have already been held in the church. In Tournai, the Church of St. Margherita has been transformed into apartments.

Eight centuries after its founding, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament at Binche, a majestic building in the heart of a medieval town close to Brussels, was put on sale for the symbolic sum of one euro. In Mechelen, Flanders, in place of a famous church, a luxury hotel has arisen. Catholic arches, columns and windows still soar between menus and tables for customers.

Despite the fact that the "Pope Emeritus," Joseph Ratzinger, comes from Germany, that Chancellor Angela Merkel is the daughter of a Lutheran minister and the current German president, Joachim Gauck, is a Protestant pastor, Germany is literally selling its churches. Between 1990 and 2010, the German Evangelical Church closed 340 churches. Recently, in Hamburg, a Lutheran church was purchased by the Muslim community. In Spandau, the church of St. Raphael is now a grocery store. In Karl Marx's town, Trier, some churches have been turned into gyms. In Cologne, a church is now a luxurious residence with a private pool.

The writer Emile Cioran once cast a sinister prophecy on Europe: "The French will not wake up until Notre Dame becomes a mosque." Three years ago, a French historian, Dominique Venner, shot himself on the altar of Notre Dame, Paris's most famous Cathedral. This suicide, which the mainstream media dismissed as the gesture of a Catholic crank, was a terrible warning to Europe. But no one was paying attention.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

Comment on this item

33 Reader Comments

Miles Hodgkiss • May 27, 2016 at 07:49

In my opinion people are more inclined to congregate when they feel threatened and congregations provide support in difficult times. So, I would interpret the trend in completely opposite terms. If anyone it is the Muslim community which probably feels it is coming under attack by and large and not either the Christian or Jewish sections of our multi-national societies who are established, have many more representatives in the Establishment, own the best properties and businesses, who can afford to send their children to good schools without playgrounds full of bullies etc. So I disagree that Jews are leaving, as you put it hysterically "en mass". I think you have provided a bias unnecessarily which only makes rational sense if the author of this piece wanted his work to act as a recruitment sergeant for Aliyah. Sorry! Not impressed.

Although I don't doubt the veracity of this article, I feel I must point out that the sale of churches in the EEC was already going on long before Islam spread across Europe, long before the masses of refugees from war torn places like Bosnia and the Middle East flooded across our borders.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt Christians to take a page from our Muslim brothers and sisters and allow Christianity back into our hearts and souls; not only at Easter and Christmas, but on a consistent basis. We've come so far in the last 50 years; yet our souls are devoid of satisfaction. We continue to take blessings for granted, yet forget to thank our God for making things possible for us.

We need not go to a war of words, or cold shoulders to our new neighbors. Maybe acceptance is the way. They reject us because we rejected them long ago. We disrespected their beliefs, their way of live, their colourful; marvelous diverse history, ignored it even though it has long been interwoven with our own.

I certainly do not support lawlessness or vigilanteism, but what about a loose acceptance, what about educating ourselves to maybe have some concept of what Islam is really about, because it certainly isn't all about kill the white devils. Who knows that learning process just might spread across the divisive lines both religions have erected. It's long past time to accept people for themselves, respect their ways, traditions and beliefs. Many of you fail to comprehend all that they have lost. Of course they're going to cling to their religious beliefs more strongly than ever, IT'S ALL THEY HAVE LEFT!! What can you not understand about that.

What if you'd been bombed out of your homes and chased across Europe to wind up at the borders of Syria or Iran, Egypt or Tunisia. Apart from the few materiel things you could carry, the only other thing you brought with you was your faith. Would you not cling to it just as fervently as the Muslim refugees cling to theirs. Compassion, understanding and acceptance must replace distrust, ignorance and unfounded hate.

We either all start getting it together or we will surely perish alone.

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Wynne • May 25, 2016 at 11:39

Next comes the destruction/desecration of museums, libraries, monuments -- all that symbolizes Western civilization in Europe. Soon, I fear, only memories...

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Chanah Stillman • May 25, 2016 at 09:13

One of the tabs on the Church of Scotland website is real estate for sale. I believe the same is true of the UK Quakers.

As these churches have become less relevant to their native majority, they have also increased their pro-Palestinian activism, perhaps hoping to become more relevant, but this does not seem to be reversing the trend. Instead, real estate revenues are increasing the volume of voices on the radical left. Only this year did the C of E censure Stephen Sizer, a crazed Israel-hater whose books were offered for sale on the websites of several major UK denominations.

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Can't read French • May 24, 2016 at 13:30

The Church of Saint-Eloi did not become a mosque. It was bought by the city.

The academic, political and wealthy elite of Europe neither understand, or care, that the transformation of a church, synagogue or temple into a Mosque represents more than just the conversion of a piece of property from one use to another. To those carrying out the redesignation it is capturing territory, it represents ideological and cultural triumph. Those who consider the overthrow of Christianity desirable need to give serious thought to its alternative.

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Dr Frank Leavitt, "Yeruham" Steve Skeete • May 25, 2016 at 00:14

Steve,Those who consider the overthrow of Christianity desirable need to give serious thought to its alternative.Yes. I used to be against Christianity because of the Inquisition, the Crusades (which killed fewer Jewsthan Mohammedans only because there were fewer Jews available to be killed),
the Pogroms, and other persecutions.
Now I understand that we have to band together to fight our common
enemy.Best to all,Yeruham

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Iftikhar Ahmad Steve Skeete • May 26, 2016 at 12:25

Islam will dominate West with out Crusades. Have you got any objection?

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Wallace Schwam • May 23, 2016 at 08:21

Can online ministries take the place of old "Brick and Mortar" churches and synagogues? Is there a relationship between churches and the closure of "Brick and Mortar retail outlets"?

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David • May 22, 2016 at 18:05

Says more about the decline of Christianity and increase in secularism, than spread of Islam.

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hans van den berg • May 22, 2016 at 16:35

1. The churches in Friesland have been empty even before the Muslims came to our nation in the 60s, simply cause Friesland, Groningen and Noord-Holland gave in to communism and socialism. 2. After the synagogue and church turned into a mosque (which was not known when the buildings were sold!) it was vowed that this would not happen again. Not one single church or synagogue after that has been turned into a mosque. 3. The Netherlands, just like any other nation including Israel (!!!) has turned away from God. Allowing gay marriage, abortion, soft drugs, etc. 4. Many churches in the Netherlands that are empty are empty also because of the high cost of maintaining monuments. Keeping it up has cost many churches millions of euro's which they prefer to use for mission, help for the needy and poor, so they come together in other buildings like schools, nightclubs, hotels, and even went up from one to 5 services on a Sunday. This is all because people are leaving God, not because of Islam.

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Michael Waugh • May 22, 2016 at 16:18

Is Islam really a religion ? I thought it was a terrorist organisation to raise funds for atrocities in Europe. Maybe Holland and France will follow the EU to the exit door before before Turkey joins and Europe is overrun by Muslim immigrants.

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Chris LA • May 22, 2016 at 16:00

Sadly, the demise of Christian churches was predicted long ago: [To the Christians at Ephesus], you do not love me now as you did at first. Think how far you have fallen! . . . If you don't turn from your sins, I will come and take your lampstand from its place. (Revelation 2:4-5)

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Dr Frank Leavitt, "Yeruham" • May 22, 2016 at 15:48

Evil can be turned to good. When the persecuted European Jews come to Israel, with their memories and understanding of the Mohammedan religion, I hope that this will give them the will to join us enthusiastically in our fight against international Mohammedanism, from our natural and national base in the Holy Land.

I just hope that as many as possible will come young enough to join the Israel Defense Forces. But of course the older Jews will not lack what tocontribute in knowledge and ability.

Very best wishes,I am surprised, however, that the Christians in Europe are not banding together to pay the enemy in kind.BestDr Frank Leavitt "Yeruham"Kiriat Arba, ISRAEL,Retired, Ben Gurion University

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Louis Walsh • May 22, 2016 at 15:44

Every time I read an article like this I feel like a person on the Titanic who is being told over and over again that the ship is sinking instead of being directed towards the lifeboat station or advised what to do. Yes, we all understand the situation. We all understand that we are living in 'interesting times' but what we need right now is some practical advise. Should we simply reach for the valium or perhaps just run for the hills ? There seems to be a very real reluctance on the part of writers and intellectuals to deal with the perhaps messy practicalities of what we should do in this situation. I am reminded in all this of the last act in Hamlet. This is a time for practical men to step forward and if the Gatestone Institute or some similar body doesn't supply them then someone else probably will.

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Dee • May 22, 2016 at 15:40

Sorry to be so pessimistic but I can see no way back for Christianity in Europe or the UK. People will wake up to what the Koran truly means when it is too late. What they will realize is that the whole moral structure of our society has been based on Christianity, which everyone has subscribed to voluntarily, even if they are not religious.Islam is based on the Koran, and Sharia Law is the moral standard of Islam.

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Jayell • May 22, 2016 at 14:31

Here in the UK we had quite a few churches and chapels go 'the way of the devil' in times past. There was a shocking story about a redundant inner city church in Manchester which our Muslim friends got their hands on, where they simply bulldozed the graveyard in the church grounds without so much as a by-your-leave. Gravestones were smashed and bones were disinterred and left on public view. Funny how these people 'demand' respect and consideration from others, but when the boot's on the other foot....? Things don't seem to have been going their way in more recent years, and there is a national organisation which handles opposition to planning permission applications for mosques, which has been quite successful in stopping the rot. Local authorities - where they haven't been swamped by Muslims - seem to taking a robust stand against mosque-building particularly where Muslims are following their usual ploy of attempting to build mosques/convert churches in 'non-Muslim' areas. There was a beautiful video clip on Youtube of a demonstration outside a 'threatened' church to stop its conversion. The campaign was successful, and in one clip a Muslim occupant of an expensive passing car threatens one of the demonstrators with the ominous "You will pay for this!" (they didn't say how much, or how, they were supposed to 'pay', or indeed exactly WHY they were apparently supposed to 'pay' anything at all! Interesting...!)

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Purushottam Deshmukh • May 22, 2016 at 13:00

Respected Mr. Giulio Meotti has given a detailed account of the sorry state of affairs in all European countries. Europe's islamization is an extremely unfortunate process and it is against this background the author's natural anxieties have to be understood. No government (eastern or western) is against Muslims building the mosques. But the basic problem with these so called pious structures is that they stealthily weave the web in which the radicalized islamists strangulate secular democracies. Our rights permeating through secular democracies are hard earned. Europe is originally Christian. There was no trace of Muslims for thousands of years. Many great Christian figures fought against the evil practices rampant in Christianity. Many scientists lost their lives at the altar of truth. Their invaluable sacrifice for scientific point of view is being ignored in Europe itself. Of course, it is being ignored! But, for whom? For islamists who for centuries have possessed monstrous disregard for non-Muslims and their respective faiths. Today, Europeans are caught in an absurd paradox: on the one hand they are fighting hard against terrorists in the Middle East and, on the other, they are handing their own under garments in their own countries to the islamist migrants.

It is clear that these migrants came to Europe empty handed. Europe provided them with food, clothing and shelter and work. Today, they are buying huge properties and estates across Europe. What for? They are doing so because their dehumanizing doctrines does not allow them to have peaceful sleep. They are awake and we are snoring in our slumber.

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Iftikhar Ahmad Purushottam Deshmukh • May 26, 2016 at 12:42

With out immigration, western society and economy would bleed to death. There will never be an end to immigration. Muslim communities are on the increase because of migration, high birth rate and conversion. By the end of this century, nearly half of British population would be Muslim.

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David Salinger • May 22, 2016 at 12:52

The last sentence in the above article says it all. And.....and no one in Europe is paying attention today. Tragedy is about to befall Europe. As a Jew I should not care. And I do not ! But taking a world view of this matter, it is indeed dangerous.Bring on Donald Trump.

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sui sen • May 22, 2016 at 12:29

It's not the fault of the Muslims that churches and synagogues are fast becoming mosques. The problem is that Christians and Jews are becoming less religious and are now abandoning churches and synagogues in vast numbers. Churches and synagogues are put put on sale, and Muslims have the money to buy them; so what's the big deal? It's not that Muslims are taking over the churches and synagogues by force, they are buying them! If you are really concerned about this then by all means tell your brethren to go back to the churches and synagogues and start attending services so that they would not be closed! You spend millions of dollars in missionary works in Asia, Latin America and Africa and yet you cannot reconvert the Western Christians back to practicing Christianity! And amidst all this failure of yours, the blame is put on the Muslims for practicing their faith and decline of church and synagogue attendance...

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John Hilger • May 22, 2016 at 11:27

Will this be the result if America continues to import Muslims from the Middle East?

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Jeff Page • May 22, 2016 at 11:01

So much for the fight against the Islamic invasion. Nobody appears to blink when Muslims buy what used to be their communities local church or synagogue. Some in authority even fail to realise that protestants, catholics and Jews are moving out of certain areas and going to a place with fewer or no Muslims. They seem to take an age to catch on, and yet these are the people running our countries in Europe! God help us all that they have been stupid enough to invite terror and death into our countries. Not just over the last couple of years with the refugee crisis, but over a period of decades. And the authorities have sat and twiddled their thumbs whilst watching the very heart of Christianity being destroyed before their very eyes. Of course we can't just blame politicians for the churches and synagogues being converted into mosques, the congregations within these has dropped dramatically over the last few decades, so we the people must accept our part in the demise of Christianity being practised in a place of worship. On the other hand, I've always believed that If there really is a God then he really won't mind whether we worship in a church or whether we are at home with family and friends. The thing that really annoys me above all else is the failure or ignorance of politicians to miss what is actually going on right in front of them. Muslims have slowly but surely taken a very stealthy and crafty approach within Europe. We all know that the politicians will fly off to a far distant part of the world where Muslims can't get at them to destroy their way of life, and that the rest of us will be left to suffer the consequences of their silly actions, so I would like to know why they are doing this to their own people? Why haven't they noticed that Muslims always target places of worship first? Designed to undermine our culture. The West's politicians are fools!

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David Ashton • May 22, 2016 at 10:01

The French and other European peoples have already "woken up" but the ruling elites (who have no love for Christianity, except as a vague pretext for global altruism and national self-abnegation) suppress any action as a "far right" danger.

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Reform School • May 22, 2016 at 09:21

Want to Invade? Call Yourself a "Refugee"!

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Carolyn • May 22, 2016 at 08:42

I suppose the governments will continue to overlook the targeting and persecution of Christians and their places of worship and will divert our attention to lesser 'causes'.

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Peter • May 22, 2016 at 08:15

According to the Catholic Danish Journalist, Iben Thranholm, Christianity has died in the West but now thrives in Russia. Cultural Marxism has 'so corrupted the West that it stinks.' (Cf Willi Marzenberg of the Frankfurt School). The Western Main Steam Media vilifies Putin, but he alone has underlined the Judeo-Christian character of Russia, and Putin, the ex-KGB villain, has stated that while the state protects morality, it is the Family and the Church that instills it. Hence Putin's prohibiting LGBT propaganda in Russia 'to protect the children'. No Western leader would dare act in this way, and indeed Obama and others promote the LBGT agenda of destroying Western Culture. Trudeau is pushing 'Assisted Suicide' and Cameron legalizes Same Sex Marriage. Yes, the West indeed 'stinks'.

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Carol Hammer • May 22, 2016 at 07:35

Why are people turning away from God? Some may be upset about the conversion of the churches, but if the populace attended church, there would be no need to sell or abandon them. We cannot blame Muslims for Christians leaving their religion.It is truly a sad state of affairs. I pray for those who have left the church to return.

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KD Punshon Carol Hammer • May 26, 2016 at 07:51

I have a technology business. If I don't keep reinventing myself then my customers go somewhere else. The church didn't move when we moved ...why is that? I recently attended a wedding in a church. You could not even hear the Priest speaking. He may have tried to "speak" to the attending people but we didn't hear him. Born again "churches" in North America are packed full, people sing and a community is developed. Where is a Born Again church here in the UK? I know of none. Churches are just boring. If the Church leaders would see how year on year they lost their congregation, why didn't they take action?

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viraj • May 22, 2016 at 07:03

Problem is that many people are turning into atheists, even in England.

Maybe to compensate for this surge of atheism in the western world Christian missionaries are trying their luck elsewhere. They unfortunately can't win their own people back and these very own people fall for other religious denominations, such as Islam, when they marry men from that religion and readily convert and become staunch Muslims.

I don't know if the Christian clergy can do anything about personal relationships but somewhere Islam seems to be offering something more attractive. I could be wrong, of course, and it could be the four letter word LOVE alone is responsible.

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Albert Reingewirtz viraj • May 24, 2016 at 14:56

UNICEF just declared Temple mount in Yeroushalaiim, Israel an Islamic site. The Western wall? They claim it has to do with Muhammad landing there with his flying horse. Jews according to UNICEF have no connection whatsoever to Yeroushalaiim. Keeping in mind that churches are burning all over the Middle East, Christian women raped Christian men beheaded for not "accepting" Islam why would anyone think that churches and synagogues in Europe converted to mosques is OK? Of course they think it is since they think that churches burning in the Middle East is OK. Did anyone noticed the Chief Islamist in Washington making a fuss about it as much as he does about The "Moderate" Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in Gaza? Impeach! Impeach! Trump your getting my vote to prevent Barack Hussein 2, Hilary from becoming President of the USA.

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Albert Reingewirtz • May 22, 2016 at 05:53

Fast sinking in a Islamic rewriting of history. Europe follows the Middle East recipe. One day Christians will be slaughtered for not "submitting" to Islam. Jews are becoming a an extinct population in Europe or rather on their way to become extinct in Europe. Jews! Get out while you still can this time.

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